So now we have two different explanations as to why the investigation began in the first place. That's not shady at all.

Actually wait, the sequence of events is clearer in the Washington Post article. Evidently they started investigating Broadwell's threats, then went deeper when Petraeus' name surfaced because at that point they feared Chinese hackers.

...that last part makes me feel like I'm reading a vault terminal in Fallout

The Chinese cyber-warfare program is pretty extensive. They have a mechanism to take their entire internet off the global grid to prevent any oncoming internet attack. There's a book on the subject by Richard Clarke called "Cyber War" that details a lot of information available on the program.

Oh I don't doubt that for a minute. It's just that the situation is so much like one of the bizarre pre-war backstories from said game. Not only are the Chinese a story element but the WTF level runs pretty high as well. Maybe we've finally crossed the line between politics and parody. In our post-apocalyptic future the jokes will write themselves!

It's the kind of behavior you'd expect from a man who didn't even prepare a concession speech. The entire notion of possibly losing was such a foreign concept to him. They even "unskewed" national polls and found themselves somehow leading by 10 points in certain swing states before the election came around. A large swath of that entire party is living in delusion. James Carville put it pretty well last night on Real Time:

"In the South, there’s a saying: 'If you want to get that boy’s attention, you gotta hit him upside the head with a two-by-four.' Well, the sound you heard on election night was pine on skull."

For now, Mr. Romney has shown up at his campaign headquarters every day since the election, where he seems preoccupied with the futures of members of his campaign staff. He arranged for them to receive severance pay through the end of November.

His No. 1 priority, so far: establishing a system to organize the 400 résumés of those staff members whose paychecks will run out in 21 days.

So who knows. Maybe the cards linked to his campaign had a preset expiration that nobody really thought about until now. It's not the first time I've heard of this happening on election night.

Also, Seth Meyers just broke out a nice joke about the Petraeus bio Broadwell wrote, which was titled All In. "When they started working on it, it was called Just the Tip"

Members on the call, subdued and dark, murmured words of support — even a few who had been a thorn in the speaker’s side for much of this Congress.

It was a striking contrast to a similar call last year, when Mr. Boehner tried to persuade members to compromise with Democrats on a deal to extend a temporary cut in payroll taxes, only to have them loudly revolt.

From what I know of it this isn't as much of a "oh my God do something right now or things start exploding" situation as the debt ceiling was, so hopefully the Dems can at least pretend to stand their ground this time; seriously, no government can function when one party is willing to hold the economy for ransom whenever it can't enact its agenda via legitimate means...which, of course, is the point of the behavior in the first place ("See? Washington is broken! Just don't ask who broke it!"). If we can't convince the hardcore "fiscal hawks" to tell millionaires to pay something above the lowest tax rates in national history then both groups deserve to be roundly ridiculed and marginalized from all sides; sorry guys, other people live here too, as much as you try to act as though they don't.

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